South African National Survey of Arachnida (SANSA): Solifugae (sun-spiders) of the national parks and reserves of South Africa (Arachnida, Solifugae)

(sun-spiders) of the and As part of the South African National Survey of Arachnida (SANSA) surveys are underway to determine the diversity of the Arachnida fauna of South Africa. One such a project is to make an inventory of the arachnids in protected areas. This paper reports on the present status of Solifugae in conserved areas. South Africa has a rich Solifugae fauna represented by 146 species. Of these species, 46 (31.5 %) represented by three families and 11 genera are presently protected in South African national parks, reserves or wilderness areas.


Introduction
As part of the South African National Survey of Arachnida (SANSA) inventories are underway to determine the diversity of the South African Arachnida fauna (Dippenaar-Schoeman & Craemer 2000). Several SANSA projects are in progress, including inventories of the arachnid faunas of protected areas. One such project is an inventory of the Solifugae (sun spiders) from protected areas. Meaningful conservation can not take place if the species involved are not known.
The Solifugae, an order of the Arachnida, are also known as sun-spiders, wind-scorpions, camel-spiders or romans. They are known from tropical, subtropical and arid environments in southern Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas (Punzo 1998). A total of 1075 species from 12 families is presently known . South Africa has a rich fauna of sun-spiders, with 150 known species represented by six families (Dippenaar-Schoeman 2002). This represents about 14 % of the world's fauna. Of these species, 107 (74 %) are endemic to South Africa (Dippenaar-Schoeman 2002). Little is still known about the conservation status of the sun-spiders in South Africa and no red list is available. In an ealier paper on the fauna of South Africa,  indicates that some species have very restricted and localised distributions. This was supported by Griffin (1990), who found that most sun-spiders appear to have very restricted ranges and may be habitat dependent. Thus, it is important not only to consider the conservation of the sun-spiders alone, but also of their habitats, particularly in the case of locally distributed species.
The first inventory of Solifugae in a protected area was made by Lawrence (1964aLawrence ( , 1964b, who recorded 18 species from the Kruger National Park. Lamoral (1973) reported on six species known from the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park (now Kgalagadi Trans- Table 1 List of Solifugae species recorded from protected areas in South Africa.  (Pocock, 1900)
Solifugae are more common in warm and arid regions, and twice as many species are found in the western half of South Africa than in the east, with the highest numbers recorded from the Northern Cape Province (Wharton 1981;Dippenaar-Schoeman 2002). Most sunspiders appear to have very restricted ranges and may be habitat dependent (Dean & Griffin 1993;Griffin 1990).
The sun-spiders are solitary animals with a strong antisocial nature. They live in retreats scraped out under rocks and logs. They use their chelicerae to loosen the soil and use their front body and legs to move large amounts of soil around. These retreats are used for resting, ecdysis and the deposition of eggs. They will defend themselves voraciously against their enemies. Because of a lack of venom they use speed and their strong chelicerae to attack. They prey on insects, other arachnids and even reptiles like geckos and lizards. * South African endemic  Lawrence, 1962Lawrence, 1962Wharton, 1981: 19;Harvey, 2003: 225. Type locality: Twee Rivieren, Kalahari Gemsbok National Park (now Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park), Northern Cape. Park/reserve: Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Richtersveld National Park. Distribution: Namibia, South Africa.

Method
Data on the occurrence and distribution of the species were obtained from published literature and material housed in several collections. Species known to be endemic to South Africa are indicated with an asterisk in Tables 1 and 2. Only literature references relative to the areas under discussion were listed; for detailed references on each species see . The latest nomenclature based on  was used to compile the updated check list.

Discussion
The Solifugae presently known from national parks and reserves of South Africa are represented by three families, 11 genera and 46 species (Table 1).
The 46 species represent 30.7 % of the South African fauna that might be presently protected on conserved areas. However, more surveys are needed to increase the sampling effort and improve the knowledge of the distribution of particular species. Also, most of the specimens examined were collected between 30-100 years ago, and therefore, new surveys are needed as part of SANSA to provide more current information on species within protected areas. There is also an urgent need for taxonomic support vi. Genus Zeriassa Pocock, 1897 to improve the reliability of the biological databases on Solifugae as the last taxonomic research on the South African fauna was undertaken by Lawrence in the late 1960s, and by Lamoral (1973).